   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches' Collective's April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!
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Is Ruth asexual/aromantic, or is this a joke about a nerd girl we know that everyone asked out and no one ever succeeded? Both?
Both. Mostly the former, but both.
Does Troy Harrington do any voices for that series?
It’s not on his resume. 😛
So what company owns the dubbing rights to this series?
Victory Sunstar has the rights, but they’re currently in bankruptcy.
Magical Soldier Princess Z is a remake of Galaxy Fighter Hiromi, which was a better series, but you kids won’t watch it because it isn’t CGI. At least I was able to replace my Arctic fansubs.
Actually you’re thinking of Magical Starlight Empress Z, which is totally different.
Magic Soldier Princess Z is an obscure series from the late 70s. It was originally released stateside as the bastardized dub “Soldiers of the Sun” (where it got combined with the unrelated series “Lost Whispers” and “Destiny Police” which was weird) in 1982 by Silver Rhythm. Silver Rhythm lost the rights to MSPZ in 2002, when Victory Sunstar snatched it up. Victory Sunstar put out a DVD release in 2004. It didn’t sell well, so it went out of print in 2007 — and with Victory Sunstar’s legal and financial problems there doesn’t appear to be any chance of a rerelease.
(As an odd coda, Silver Rhythm has tried to release a version of Soldiers of the Sun WITHOUT the MSPZ footage… And it doesn’t really work)
And Kelli and Sally were the *worst* names to use for those characters. Ugh! Thank the gods for the mute button.
I just hate Captain/General Rayburn. I mean they made General Yamazaki from Destiny Police an older version of Tanaka from MSPZ. As if it made any sense to combine those two characters to bridge the “generations”
What, did the guy just happen to grow his left arm back somehow?
You know, when I was a kid watching it, it always weirded me out that the character designs changed so drastically. When I found out they weren’t meant to be one cartoon, it made more sense.
My heart rate still doubles when I hear the theme song, though.